The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Approved.

Operator: ThaddeusB (talk)

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic

Programming Language(s): Perl

Function Summary: To collect and update DYK stats as per this request.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): Every 30 mins (adjustable)

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): N

Function Details: The bot will download Template talk:Did_you_know once every 30 minutes (or a different interval, if desired), count the number of hooks there and write the info to a user friendly table at Wikipedia: Did you know/DYK hook count. Upon user request, other stats may be collected. In the event of such a request, a new BRFA will be submitted for the additional task(s).

A sample table can be seen at User:WikiStatsBOT/Test. --ThaddeusB (talk) 21:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC) hmm,[reply]

Every 30 minutes is pretty frequent for this task, maybe every 4 hours would better sync to DYKbot removing hooks and updating its pages. MBisanz ^talk 18:12, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't personally care what the interval is - I'll set it to whatever the community deems appropriate. The people who asked it to be coded seemed to want it to update as often as possible, so I picked the smallest # that I didn't think was overkill. If I understand correctly, the info is to be used partially to gauge how often DYKbot should run. I would think the info would have to be updated more frequently than DYKbot runs to be useful in that regard. I'll point the concerned parties to this thread for comment, to get a better understanding. --ThaddeusB (talk) 19:35, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I guess this depends on what the DYK stats are going to be used for, but I would imagine it would be simple just to have this bot run on the same interval as the DYK update bot runs. From what I can tell, the DYK update bot's interval can be set by the admins...would it be possible (using a transclusion or something) to have the interval for this bot just be whatever it is for the DYK update bot, and to change accordingly when admins change the update intervals on that bot? —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 20:23, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Until the bot is in use, it is hard to predict how often the bot should update. It really is a function of how often things get removed or added to Template talk:Did you know. The DYK admins control the Main Page bot updated by adjusting User:DYKadminBot/time. A six hour update rate woule equate to the number 21600 (21600 seconds). Perhaps WikiStatsBOT can be set up to include a stand-alone time parameter similarly to User:DYKadminBot/time to allow the DYK admins to adjust the WikiStatsBOT update time. The initial setting can be 1800 (=30x60) for 30 minutes or 14400(=4x60x60) for five hours. Once the bot gets going, I'm sure DYK can be able to figure out the optimum time. -- Suntag ☼ 20:34, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Solution?: I have created an adjustable time delay at User:WikiStatsBOT/DYKdelay. The bot will read from there and delay whatever time is specified after its next update. If a user (or vandal) enters a bad value/blanks the page/etc. the bot will simply default to either the minimum (30 mins) or maximum (12 hours). As such, there will be no need to protect the page. (The page will also be on my watch list.) I think it should probably start at the minimum since it will be easier to tell if it is updating too often than updating not often enough. --ThaddeusB (talk) 21:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good. -- Suntag ☼ 07:50, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I respectfully request this bot be approved for a trial. --ThaddeusB (talk) 21:57, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

((BAGAssistanceNeeded))

Any reason this is being outputted to the wiki, rather than the toolserver? BJ^Talk 03:47, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The output will be transcluded to several DYK pages, such as Wikipedia talk:Did you know and Template:Did you know/Next update, and Template talk:Did you know. Some of the DYK members probably will transclude the output to their user page as well. -- Suntag ☼ 13:29, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. Approved for trial (5 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. BJ^Talk 17:15, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Bot is now live. Let me know of any formatting changes desired and of course let me know of any issues that arise. --ThaddeusB (talk) 21:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Trial complete. No significant problems encountered. --ThaddeusB (talk) 15:26, 26 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Edits like these serve no purpose. I, for one, cannot in good conscious approve a bot which makes unnecessary edits such as those. Q ^{T C} 06:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. It should be changed so that if there are no changes to anything except the time, it doesn't make an edit. Mr.Z-man 07:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The adjustable timer was put in place so that if it was editing too frequently, it could be adjusted. However, I have now added code so that it also won't make an edit if no values have changed. --ThaddeusB (talk) 16:17, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Approved for trial (5 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. I'd like to see another trial with the code added, for completeness sake. Q ^{T C} 00:04, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Trial complete. Retrial complete. The stats page is now transluded into Template talk:Did You Know for all to see, so I'd appreciate a speedy-approval before it gets too out of date. --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

((BAGAssistanceNeeded))

Looks good now that the code's been updated and the unecessary edits are not made.  Approved. RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 17:16, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.